“Because you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Thank you,” she says softly.
“Does it bother you that I like to watch you?” I ask because I’ve noticed she fidgets when people stare at her.
“Not you.” She pauses. “But others scare me. I don’t like to be watched.”
“Did your husband watch you?” I want to know about her life before me. Because in knowing, I can protect her.
“No, he knew I didn’t like it.” She pauses again, and I sit there, waiting.
The longer it takes her to answer, the more my body locks up.
“They used to watch me. I loved when I was away at boarding school. It meant I could take a shower or dress without their prying eyes.” I hear the catch in her voice before her head drops again.
I’m in motion and ripping the door open. I pull her into my body.
“Who watched you, Marnie?”
I feel her tears against my chest, and it breaks something inside of me.
Lifting her chin up, I see the pain and the reality of what I don’t want to know, but it’s there. I’m about to ask the awful question, but she raises her hand to cover my lips.
“They never touched me. Not when I was younger. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is us. They’re not here.” She doesn’t say anything else, but I know she’s going to use them to push me away again.
I move her hand and lean down to take her lips in a soft kiss. I make love to her on the bench in the shower. When she cries out my name, it rings off the walls, fixing whatever was broken inside me before.
I want forever with her. Even if she keeps pushing me away. I’m never letting her go.
Icome awake and start to panic when I realize the space next to me is empty. Until I hear them.
“We need to be quiet,beauté. Rylan is still asleep.”
“But, Momma, Ry said he’d make me booberry pantakes.” Oly’s little voice warms me, and I love that both of them call me Ry.
Rolling out of bed, I slip on a pair of sweatpants over the boxers I put on before we crawled into bed early this morning. I rush through my morning rituals and head to the great room, where Marnie is at the stovetop, assembling what looks like Monte Cristo sandwiches on the griddle.
“No pancakes?”
Marnie jumps, and Oly squeals before hopping off the stool and rushing toward me. For a split second, I thought she was going to hurt herself, but I need to remember she’s going to push herself to push my buttons and scare the crap out of me. I scoop her up into my arms, and she hugs me close.
“Ry, Momma is making Monny Tristo instead. She said we needed poteen.”
Carrying Oly in one arm, I walk around the island and pull Marnie into me, then lean down for a deep kiss.
“I could have made sausage. I have some caribou breakfast sausage in the freezer.”
“I thought Monte Cristos would be better. I’m using some of the leftover ham from last night.”
I’d smoked a ham along with the brisket just in case someone wanted something else. The brisket was a hit, and there isn’t much left.
I look at Marnie’s assembly line of supplies. She even has a jam boiling in a pan at the back of the stove.
“I used some of your cranberries and raspberries from the freezer to make a fresh jam.”
“Sugar, you’re the best.” I kiss her forehead as a knock sounds at the door.
I hand Oly to Marnie and go to answer it. My brothers all have access to the house, so I’m shocked when I open the door and find Wing standing there, along with Icarus and Romeo.
